Aboriginal Weapons and Tools Aboriginal Weapons and Tools The Spear and Spear Thrower The favoured weapon of the Aborigines was the spear and spear thrower. The fact that they never adopted the bow and arrow has been debated for a long time. During post-glacial times the bow and arrow were being used in every inhabited part of the world except Australia. A number of reasons for this have been put forward, one of which was that the Aborigines were ultra conservative and incapable of change. This suggestion is now known to be wrong, they did adopt items such as the out-rigger canoe, they obviously saw the advantage over their bark canoes, which were not suitable for fishing at sea. When the dugout canoe was adopted by them, being introduced by the Macassans , it allowed them to fish for dugong and turtle further out to sea. The bow and arrow was assumed to be more efficient than the spear for hunting and fighting, but in Australia this doesn't seem to be the case. It has been suggested that bow and arrow were useful in places like New Guinea where the prey species were not very large.

In Australia the animals hunted were often much bigger, several species of kangaroo grow to the height of a man, and their hide would no doubt be tougher than the smaller wallabies hunted in New Guinea. It is not that they don't embrace change, they have been demonstrated to have been doing that since their first arrival in Australia, it is just that they have been very selective in what that take. If they don't see an improvement over something they already have, they reject the item. This characteristic of the Aborigines was commented on by Captain Cook. Captain Cook saw the bow and arrow being used on an island close to the mainland at Cape York, as it was in the Torres Strait islands and New Guinea. But the Aborigines preferred the spear. And it seems they weren't the only ones to think it was a good thing to have. Spears and spear throwers were also appreciated by their neighbours. Cape York was the Switzerland of the prehistoric north, not getting involved in their neighbour's wars, but selling high quality weapons to all. It has been said that the spear and spear thrower were probably Australia's first export item. They had different points for different uses.

The 2 main spears traded with the people of the Torres Strait islands were the fishing spear and the fighting spear. The fishing spear had 4 bone barbs. The fighting spear had a barbed bone point. The people of the Torres Strait islands also used them for hunting dugong. Death spear All backed blades were microliths, usually less than 3 cm long, and all appear to have been used for a similar purpose. It has been suggested that their main use was in rows of barbs along the sides of death spears. These spears were deadly weapons, the barbs causing great blood loss in the victim, human in fighting, animal in hunting. It has been said that they usually couldn't be pulled out, needing to be pushed right through the body, which no doubt caused even more damage. The death spears from museum collections have up to 40 barbs attached to grooves in the spear shaft with gum. These barbs are unbacked quartz flakes with no secondary working. Evidence from sites such as Sassafras and Currarong indicates that backed blades gradually disappeared about 2000 years ago, to be replaced increasingly by quartz flakes.

It is thought that in earlier times backed blades were used as barbs on death spears, evidence for which is the large numbers of backed blades that have been found, the large numbers suggesting they were used for something other than spear points, with so many being used on death spears this could account for the high numbers found. Spear thrower - woomera or atlatl The antiquity of the spear thrower in Australia was pushed back to at least 40,000 BP (some have dates of 60,000 BP), making it possibly the oldest known use of a spear thrower in the world, when it was discovered that Mungo Man, Lake Mungo 3 (WLH 3) , had severe osteoarthritis of the right elbow, spear thrower elbow, a sure sign that the gracile Skelton was indeed a man, right handed, and used a spear thrower for a number of years. Points Stone points are usually assumed to have been used hafted to the ends of spears. They have been found trimmed on one side (unifacial) or both sides (bifacial).

Neither appears to predate the other, both have been found in the same level at sites such as the Yarar Rockshelter in the Northern Territory. At the Yarar site, the majority of broken points were butts, broken tips being a minority. It appears the rock shelter was a place where spears with broken points were rehafted. Both types of points, which are believed to have been spear points, had similar dimensions of about 3.5 cm long. They are of a size that could be used on arrows, but no evidence of arrows have been found in Australia. At the time of the European colonisation of Australia spears were being used in northwestern Australia that had stone tips. In the Kimberleys, these spear points ranged in size from 3 to more than 10 cm long. Some spears from museums have 3 cm long bifacial points of which 2 cm of point protrudes from the hafting gum. It is assumed the use of very small points meant that the point would be less likely to break on impact than longer points. The spear points from the Kimberleys are characterised by symmetrical, pressure-flaked bifacial points.

These points may have been regarded more as ritual or status objects, as they were traded along the trade routes to distant tribes. After the overland telegraph was established the porcelain insulators became a sort after material for the construction of these points, along with glass. These high quality points were being used by the desert tribes 1000 km away in circumcision rituals. Symmetrical, unifacial points, Pirri points, were characteristic of South Australia. They were apparently used only in the distant past, Aborigines believing they must have been used in the Dreamtime, because they had no knowledge of them. Points occur in a broad north-south belt across the continent. They were not present on the west coast and only a few are known from the east coast. There may be a long continuity of technological tradition in the Kimberley , in grooved, ground-edge axes and serrated flakes. The Kimberley serrated spear points are renowned for their fine crafting and their symmetry. They were made by the pressure-flaking technique, fine flakes are removed by use of wood or bone. Prior to European occupation fine-grained stone was used.

This type of leaf-shaped, bifacially trimmed spear points has been used for at least 3,000 years. Adze Flake Throwing boomerangs In other situations boomerangs were used as throwing sticks that could be thrown with great accuracy at high speed to knock out or kill the animal or human that was the intended target. The Throwing boomerangs were designed to fly straight and fast by giving them an aerodynamic twist. Boomerangs were cut from branches that already had a bend, then carved, heated and twisted to give them the aerodynamic shape. In plan throwing boomerangs were asymmetrical, the longer end being used for leverage and the shorter end were weight and shaped to cart wheel the blade, enlarge the parameter of the blade and to increase the likelihood of a successful kill. Extremely hard wood was used in their construction which helped make them a deadly blade-like club. Cane1 reports being a man hit on the head by one of these boomerangs which suffered severe brain damage, giving some indication of just how deadly they would have been in battle. Links Aboriginal Weapons Aboriginal Weapons Aboriginal Weapons Hunting Spears Hunting spears used by the Aboriginal people are usually made from Tecoma vine.

These vines are not straight but in fact curly. To straighten them the maker dries out the moisture by heating the branch over a small fire while it is still green. While doing this he shapes it into the form that he wants. A wooden barb is attached to the spearhead by using kangaroo (sometimes emu) sinew. The opposite end is then tapered to fit onto a spearthrower. On completion the spear is usually around 270 centimetres (9 feet) long. In Aboriginal Art the spear is usually depicted as a straight line with a triangle at one end. Spearthrower/Woomera Spearthrowers are also commonly known as Woomera or Miru. The spearthrower is usually made from mulga wood and has a multi- function purpose. It is however primarily designed to launch a spear. The thrower grips the end covered with Spinifex resin and places the end of the spear into the small peg on the opposite end of the spearthrower. The spear can then be launched with substantial power at an enemy or prey. Inserted into the Spinifex resin of the handle of many spearthrowers is very sharp piece of quartz rock. This is used for cutting, shaping or sharpening.

The spearthrower was also used as a fire making saw, as a receptacle of mixing ochre, in ceremonies and to deflect spears in battle. In Aboriginal Art the Spear Thrower/Woomera is depicted as what can be seen in this image.... Shields Shields are usually made from the bloodwood of Mulga trees. Aboriginal men using very basic tools make these. They are designed to be mainly used in battle but are also used in ceremonies. Like other weapons, design varies from region to region. Many shields have traditional designs or fluting on them whilst others are just smooth. In Aboriginal art the Shield is depicted as an oval shape with two small oval circles for hand holds. See here.... Boomerangs Boomerangs are also a very multi functional instrument of the Aboriginal people. Their uses include warfare, hunting prey, rituals and ceremonies, musical instruments, digging sticks and also as a hammer. Boomerangs made in the desert are non-returning and when thrown correctly can reach distances of 160 metres (175 yards). This is nearly three times the distance a fighting club could be thrown.

They are usually made from mulga wood and can be smoothed or incised with various designs purporting to that maker or family group. In Aboriginal Art the boomerang is depicted as a 'V' shape or the 'killer boomerang' as a Number 7. See here..... Clubs Clubs are usually always made from mulga wood and can vary in shapes and sizes. Many are fire hardened and some have razor sharp quartz set into the handle with Spinifex resin. They are used in ceremonies, in battle, for digging, for grooving tools, for decorating weapons and for many other purposes. In Aboriginal art paintings fighting clubs are usually depicted the same as digging sticks. See here... Indigenous tools and weapons Indigenous tools and weapons Traditionally Indigenous Australians have used a variety of tools and weapons in their everyday life, often for collecting food and carrying it from place to place. Most of the wooden tools, implements and weapons use local materials ï¿½ different timbers for particular tools and weapons, strings for various uses come from different plants and even from the sinews of animals, as well as glues from plants. Traditional people also use fire to bend or straighten timber, or to make it harder.

While both men and women use some tools, there are tools that are used exclusively by men and others by women. Men almost exclusively use weapons like spears, boomerangs and rifles. Although western people often think of Aborigines as nomadic, moving from place to place, usually their movement was for following the bush foods according to a seasonal pattern and for ceremonies. Many of the tools they needed could be left behind until they returned the following year. For example, grinding stones were left near where the grasses grew so they could be used from harvest to harvest. Other tools Spears and spear throwers There are a large variety of spears made by the Indigenous peoples of Australia, and they were made for a variety of purposes and from different materials. When making a spear, Aboriginal men would often use fire to help straighten or harden the wood. Spears made for killing large animals such as kangaroos and buffalo need to be made out of strong hardwood to be able to penetrate through the skin of a large fast-moving animal. Often the spear point was made from stone that was shaped into a point and attached to the spear with resin and string or sinew. If stone wasnï¿½t available, the point could be hardened using a fire.

Fishing spears were made from lighter materials and often had several barbed points. In northern Australia, bamboo could be used to make a number of points, otherwise the extra points had to be attached. Sometimes the branches wouldnï¿½t be straight but could be straightened by holding them over a fire. Spears for hunting birds were made out of light wood and were used so that they would hit the birds when they were in flight, damaging their wings and necks, rather than spearing them. Boomerangs were also used, as well as making the birds fly into nets. Some spears were made exclusively for fighting. Fighting spears were usually made from hard woods and had barbs on them so that they could not be removed. The only way of removing a barbed spear is to push it right through. The science of spear throwers Spear throwers were often used with spears to increase the distance they could be thrown. The design of spear throwers depends on the people who made them. They are made out of hard wood and are usually 45 to 150 cm long. They have a peg at one end where the spear fits in and the thrower holds it by the other end to throw the spear.

Using a spear thrower, an expert thrower can get two to three times the distance he could throw without using one. Spear throwers work according to the principle of levers, which are one kind of simple machine. There are three types of levers and a spear thrower is an example of the second type of lever. The peg is the fulcrum, the spear is the load and the effort is at the top of the spear thrower, provided by the thrower. Some spear throwers could also be used to produce fire, by rubbing the edge against another softer piece of wood while keeping some kindling nearby. Woomera is a name commonly used instead of spear thrower although it is a name used only by some language groups in parts of New South Wales. The town of Woomera in South Australia was first built in 1947 when Australia was involved with the British in developing rockets and missiles. Boomerangs The boomerang is a wooden Aboriginal implement that has a number of uses, particularly for hunting and fighting, and other uses such as digging sticks and making music as clapsticks.

Although we usually think of its use as a throwing stick that returns to the thrower, there are boomerangs that are made not to return. Boomerangs were not used in all parts of Australia, and the word ï¿½boomerangï¿½ comes originally from the Tharawal people south of Sydney. Returning boomerangs are shaped like two wings joined together at an angle. In cross-section they have the same airfoil shape as a wing. One end is usually twisted up slightly, the other end slightly downwards. It is the spinning action that causes the boomerang to return to the thrower. When boomerangs are thrown correctly, they are held at about 45 degrees to the ground, about halfway between horizontal and vertical. The thrower flicks the boomerang with a wrist action as well as throwing it forward. The boomerang spins about 10 times a second at about 100 kilometres per hour, and can be thrown about as far as 150 metres. The boomerang that wonï¿½t come back Non-returning boomerangs are bigger and heavier than returning ones and were used in hunting and fighting.

Their design allows them to be thrown further and they keep on spinning, even when they hit the ground. How boomerangs are made Boomerangs are made from hardwood; mulga, a type of wattle (Acacia aneura), is commonly used in central Australia, whilst sheoak (Allocasuarina) is often used in southeast Australia. Depending on the angle of the boomerang, the piece of wood is selected because of a curve in the stem or the way a branch comes off the stem. This is cut off and split so that it is possible to make two boomerangs. Before they had metal axes and hatchets, the boomerang makers used stone axes and adzes to cut out the boomerangs, and finished them using stone scrapers. The shape of the boomerang is cut out of the wood, sometimes using another boomerang to check the design. Often it will have to be put over a small fire so that it can be bent into shape, particularly to twist the ends up or down. Traditional designs might be painted or engraved on the surface of the boomerang.

Other tools Wood and stone together Many wooden implements have stone points attached as well, including some spears, stone axes and adzes. These were tied on with string or animal sinews and glued in place using natural resins. The resins were collected from various plants (for example Xanthorrhoea and spinifex) and could be softened and worked into place over a small fire. The resins would turn hard as they cooled down. Sometimes the resin would be applied to a shaped stone to make a knife, or to a didgeridu to make a mouthpiece. Bowls Bowls have a wide range of uses, usually for women to carry things such as foods, water and even babies. They can be used for winnowing grain and for digging. Bowls are made from wood, not bark, and have to be shaped according to their purpose. Women usually do the work of making bowls and they often decorate the outside with traditional designs. These days many bowls are made and sold to tourists. These are often called coolamons but this is the name given to particular bowls in only a few language groups. Other wooden tools Other wooden tools include digging sticks, adzes and clapsticks.

Digging sticks are long and hard, with the end pointed and often hardened over a fire. Adzes are used for scraping out other wooden tools, such as boomerangs and coolamons. There is a sharp stone or kangaroo teeth set in the end of the adze with resin. String String can be made from various plants or from the hair or fur of animals and humans. It could then be woven into ropes to give it increased strength. String has many uses for Indigenous peoples, including making baskets and traps of different types and for making rope. Torres Strait Islanders made ropes which were strong enough to catch dugong and to bring them back ashore. Weaving In Northern Australia, Aboriginal women weave baskets and mats using fibres they obtain from the pandanus plant. The leaves of the pandanus are collected and dried, then torn into strips. The strips could be dyed various colours using dyes from some other plants, to produce yellow, red and brown string. Baskets could be used for collecting and carrying foods, and these days are also sold to tourists. Other plants could be woven into baskets and traps to catch animals. Fish traps could be made from the bulrushes growing alongside wetlands.

Cloaks Skins of various animals could be made into cloaks and blankets, to keep warm in the cooler times of the year. In southeast Australia the skins of up to 80 possums were sown together to make heavy cloaks which were highly prized. The skins were first dried out then sown together using vegetable fibres or animal sinews. Designs were cut into the cloaks that told of the maker and the group the wearer belonged to. People were often buried in their cloaks. Pearl shell and bone Pearl shell was used for decoration and was traded from its sources in Torres Strait and the Kimberleys along trade routes extending to southwest and southern Australia. Bone from a variety of animals was used to make points for spears and other purposes. Awls made of bone were used for punching holes into skins for cloaks and or bark to make canoes. Sometimes teeth, particularly of kangaroos, were used as tools because of their hardness, and they were sometimes made into necklaces. Australian Indigenous tools and technology | australia.gov.au Australian Indigenous tools and technology European discovery and the colonisation of Australia Australian Indigenous tools and technology Warning. Australian Stories may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.

Australian Stories also contain links to sites that may use images of Aboriginal and Islander people now deceased. The key to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander technologies is both their intimate understanding of the natural environment as well as their skills in designing artefacts that were flexible and adaptable. Tools and technology implements Ludo Kuipers, Louis Jupurrula making a 'karli' or boomerang in Lajamanu, a Warlpiri Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, 1981. Courtesy of OzOutback Internet Services. Tools and implements reflect the geographical location of different groups. For example, coastal tribes used fishbone to tip their weapons, whereas desert tribes used stone tips. While tools varied by group and location, Aboriginal people all had implements such as knives, scrapers, axe-heads, spears, various vessels for eating and drinking, and digging sticks. Aboriginal people achieved two world firsts with stone technology. They were the first to introduce ground edges on cutting tools and to grind seed. They used stone tools for many things including: to make other tools, to get and prepare food, to chop wood, and to prepare animal skins. Stone fish traps are used in rivers where water levels rise and fall.

Stone fish traps on the Darling River at Brewarrina are used to catch fish after rain. The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape in south-west Victoria contains the remains of one of Australia's largest aquaculture systems and the only remaining permanent houses built by an Indigenous community in Australia. After European discovery and English colonisation, Aboriginal people quickly realised the advantages of incorporating metal, glass and ceramics. They were easier to work with, gave a very sharp edge, and needed less resharpening. While stone tools have survived well, the great majority of technological items were made of perishable material such as wood and fibre. Boomerangs, clubs and spears were the most common weapons. Weapons Spears Claude-Marie-Francois Dien, 1787-1865, Terre de Diemen, armes et ornemens, 1824, engraving, hand col. Courtesy of National Library of Australia. Spears are used for hunting, fishing and fighting. Some are made from single pieces of wood. Tasmanian Aborigines had very long spears, about six metres in length. Many spears have to be made from light wood. Oyster Bay pine saplings grow tall and straight.

With the lightness, tallness and straightness of them, you rarely had to work them over a fire. We used to bind the spear shafts with yacca [grass tree, Xanthorrhoea] gum sap and kangaroo sinews. Apart from fighting spears, we had six-metre-long canoe spears, and short stumpy spears for spearing seals. Brendan Brown, Rocky Point, Cape Barren Island, 2000 Other spears are made from one or more parts attached to a wooden shaft. Composite spears with stone heads are found mostly in the centre, north and Kimberley regions of Australia. Detachable barbed spears are common across the continent, from the south-west through the centre to Cape York Peninsula. Multi-pronged spears are generally used for fishing and are mostly found in the north and south-east of Australia. Boomerangs Credited with inventing the boomerang, many Aboriginal groups used this tool mainly for hunting but also in ceremonies. The weapon can easily kill a small animal or knock down a larger one. The way that boomerangs work is very complex.

Part of the explanation is that boomerangs are flatter on the lower side and more curved on top in a shape called an aerofoil. Aborigines had boomerangs to suit different purposes. For instance, in desert areas, heavy wood from the mulga tree was used to make boomerangs for hunting kangaroos, whereas lighter boomerangs were made on the New South Wales coast from mangrove trees, where they were used for duck hunting. In 1914, inventor David Unaipon (1872–1967) used the principles of boomerang flight to anticipate the helicopter. A Ngarrindjeri man, from South Australia, Unaipon was fascinated by the idea of perpetual motion and invented such things as an improved handpiece for sheepshearing, a centrifugal motor and a multi-radial wheel. David Unaipon is commemorated on Australia's $50 note. Spearthrowers Ludo Kuipers, George Manyita about to throw a 3-pronged fish spear, Mukarrmuli billabong near Wuymol/Bulman, an Aboriginal community in the south of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, 1983.

Courtesy of OzOutback Internet Services. Hunters all over the world have used spears. The 'woomera', a type of spearthrower, is an Aboriginal invention. A woomera is a simple lever that acts to increase the speed at which a spear is thrown, and thus increase the distance it travels. Made of wood, a woomera acts as an extension of the thrower's arm. A woomera and spear were the fastest weapons in the world before the invention of the self-loading rifle (Eric Willmot). Woomeras were multipurpose tools that could be fitted with a stone cutting tool or an axe-like attachment. If you had a good woomera, you could hunt, chop firewood, cut down branches to make a shelter or chop up meat. It was lightweight and easy to carry around, which was really important in a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Message sticks Throughout Australia, Aboriginals had over 200 different languages and 600 dialects, yet no written language. Communication of information to all these different groups was often through a message stick. Each stick was carved in a way that would help the carrier remember the message and prove to the recipient that the information was genuine.

Message sticks meant that a complex or very long message could be communicated between people. This was supported by people who acted as 'diplomats' and others who were multilingual and used as translators. Nets, baskets and bags Elizabeth Djuttarra, Batjparra, traditional sieve. Elizabeth Djuttarra. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2007. Fibrework nets, traps, baskets and bags are used extensively for fishing and hunting. In earlier time, fibre objects were crucial for the sustenance of family groups. Some baskets and bags are so tightly woven that they can carry honey or liquids. Bags are generally collapsible and sometimes, expandable. They are mainly used for carrying food and sometimes babies. Bags are made from bush string, cordyline and knotted grass stalks. String bags are also used to sift seeds. Looped or twined fibre nets are used to catch kangaroos and emus, as well as ducks, fish and eels. In central Arnhem Land, men use hinged nets to scoop up the fish. In Tasmania, mollusc carry baskets made from twined bark fibres are used for collecting oysters, mussels and other shellfish.

Aboriginal women use swamp reeds, native flax, sedge grasses, water vine and sea grasses to make baskets. Most fibrework is made from coiling, twining and looping. In South Australia, the Ngarrindjeri people of the Murray River and Coorong regions never lost their basic fibre techniques despite their experiences of colonisation. The coiling of rushes into baskets was then passed onto women of Goulbourn and Croker Islands through missionary activities. This technique soon spread across Arnhem Land. In Arnhem Land, fibrework and containers is associated very closely with major Dreaming stories. Weaving baskets and bags helps define the knowledge and status of women in communities as women have to earn the right to that knowledge. In south-eastern coastal communities, Aboriginal women's basket work has benefited from a significant amount of knowledge being sourced, collected and passed back to them. Highly regarded basket makers, women from Lake Tyers, Victoria, and the Coorang, South Australia, have demonstrated methods of collecting materials and different weaving techniques which they shared with the women of the south-eastern coast of New South Wales. Basket making for the south coastal women revives and continues a tradition of women's work.

Watercraft and canoes Rolf de Heer, Still from 'Ten Canoes', 2006. Courtesy of Vertigo Productions and the National Film and Sound Archive. Early watercraft were relatively fragile, often made from bark and usually left to rot when their use was finished. Canoes provided an easy means of travelling through the lagoons and into reed beds, providing a plentiful supply of fish, eels and birds' eggs. A river was a means of navigation and Aborigines used canoes and rafts to travel extensively through their lands. The film Ten Canoes, the first feature-length movie in an Australian Indigenous language, tells the story of ten men going onto the swamp in canoes to hunt the eggs of Gumang, the magpie goose. The bark canoes and artefacts used in the film were based on historical Donald Thomson photographs, loaned from Bula'bula Arts. Tied bark canoes were used along the south-east coast of Australia. 'Canoe trees' are relatively common within the Murray-Darling Basin. The clearly visible canoe scars seen on the trees result from the removal of a large slab of bark, destined for shaping as a crude canoe.

A Wurundjeri canoe from the Melbourne region survives and is held by the Museum of Victoria. Three types of rope have been used to tie the canoe into shape; two of these are handmade, but the third is machine-made European twine. Most striking are the three metal straps (taken from a wooden barrel) that maintain the canoe's shape. Museum Victoria, Bark canoe Ludo Kuipers, Galiliwa Nunggarrgalug getting turtle eggs on the beach at Almalamig Point, Malagayangu, near Numbulwar at the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, 1995. Courtesy of OzOutback Internet Services. Bush food implements Carrying dishes and digging sticks were important tools used in food gathering. Most Aboriginal communities harvested seeds of native millet, which only grows in the summer months. Some groups overcame the problem by gathering grass seeds while they were green and stacking them in heaps until they ripened. Seed-grinding stones were larger and flatter than stones used to grind other plants.

Along the Murray, from the river red gums along the river banks, Aboriginal people could use the bark for making buckets or coolamons of paperbark stitched together and which carried food and water. From the plentiful sheoaks of Maribyrnong came the useful hard wood which Aboriginal people used for making implements such as digging sticks. Shelter The design and technology of shelters differed according to differing seasons and climates. Ceremonial function and family grouping size also effect the diversity of Australian shelters. Meriam house of the Torres Strait Islands. Courtesy of Queensland Museum and Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. On the Atherton Tablelands, shelters, or wiltjas, were made from pliable cane or branches lashed together. The covering was of grass, leaves or bark. In the Torres Strait Islands, houses were a distinctive 'beehive shape' constructed of thatched grass over a framework of bamboo poles lashed together. In Arnhem Land, shelters ranged from simple peg-supported paperbark windbreaks used in the dry season, to poles that supported sheets of stringybark. Shelters also included raised platforms to protect from heavy rains and flooding.

In southern Australia, materials and shapes of shelters recorded by Europeans varied from a whalebone hut on the shores of Encounter Bay, South Australia in 1847 through stone shelters in western Victoria to 'complex house structure with several interconnecting spaces constructed of sheets of rigid bark and poles' at Corranderrk in 1878. Trade in material culture and technology Many of these items of material culture were traded from one location to another across the continent and down to Tasmania. Trade was vital to Aboriginal existence in some areas as it improved the quality of life for family groups. Stones, ochres, tools, ceremonial items and other resources not normally available in one area could be obtained through trade in another. Trading routes followed permanent waterholes, and goods were traded over long distances. From the north came sea shells, from the south came grinding stones and ochre, and from the east and north-east came shields, axeheads, boomerangs and spears. Useful links What is a boomerang? – Boomerang Association of Australia What is a boomerang?

An investigation of the word boomerang in Aboriginal and English languages by Tony Butz (former history teacher and linguist, past editor of the Boomerang Bulletin, and the founder of the Boomerang Throwing Association of New South Wales) Myths and Misconceptions There are several myths and misconceptions about the origin of the word boomerang that need dispelling before we investigate its use in the English language and in the modem world. The following should clarify some issues at the outset. First, there is no such thing as “the Aboriginal language”; there were in fact between 500 and 600 different Aboriginal languages at the time of European settlement in 1788, each with its own terms for tools and weapons. Second, the returning boomerang was unknown to Aboriginal peoples in most of the Northern Territory, all of Tasmania, half of South Australia and the northern parts of Queensland and Western Australia. Roughly 60% of Aboriginal peoples used both returning boomerangs and non-returning hunting sticks, and therefore had words for them; a further 10% had only non-returning hunting sticks, and the remaining 30% used neither.

Third, Aboriginal peoples had no writing so could not record their words before the arrival of Europeans, who soon discovered that the returning boomerang was called a ‘birgan’ by Aborigines around Moreton Bay, and a ‘barragadan’ by those in north-western New South Wales. It is a myth that it was Captain James Cook who recorded the name ‘boomerang’ for the first time. In fact, there is no record that he ever used the term or even saw a returning boomerang being thrown, though he did take one back to England, thinking it was a primitive wooden sword. When he arrived in Botany Bay in 1770, he recorded that the Aborigines were ‘all arm’d with darts and wooden swords’. His botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, also likened the devices to ‘Arabian scymetars’ when he saw them in their hands and fibre belts, as William Dampier had done when he saw them on the west coast of Australia in 1688.

All of these early explorers thought that boomerangs were swords and none of them ever saw a boomerang being thrown, nor did any of them ever record the term boomerang. Indeed, boomerangs continued to be referred to as ‘wooden swords’ for a couple of years after settlement, in the journals of Governor Arthur Phillip (1789), Captain Watkin Tench (1789) and surgeon John White (1790). It took an ensign of the New South Wales Corps, Francis Louis Barrallier, a French-born surveyor and engineer, to make the first written record of a boomerang’s return flight. His journal entry, dated 12 November, 1802, and written in French, mentioned the boomerang in a footnote, as he attempted to find a way across the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney: They throw it on the ground or in the air, making it revolve on itself, and with such a velocity that one cannot see it returning towards the ground; only the whizzing of it is heard.

Barrallier did not give it a name, but referred to it only as a ‘piece of wood in the form of a half circle’. Although it is often claimed that Bungaree, an Aboriginal befriended by the First Fleet settlers, was the first person to be seen throwing a boomerang in Port Jackson (Sydney), many colonists had in fact reported seeing the boomerang in action west of Sydney in the first few years of the colony, before Bungaree was doing his demonstrations in Sydney proper. Not surprisingly, this strange object captured their attention, and soon there were rumours that Aborigines could throw a boomerang out, to hit a kangaroo and then return to the thrower (this physical impossibility was the result of a failure to distinguish between two very different types of throw-sticks). There was much talk about the boomerang in the colony, but still no recording of its name. The Origin of Boomerang A year after Barrallier’s journal entry, and possibly because of it, the Sydney Gazette published the first known printed description of a boomerang’s flight path, but even then it was not given the name boomerang.

Indeed, it was not until 1822 that this fascinating device was described in detail and recorded as a ‘bou-mar-rang’, from the language of the Turuwal people of the George’s River near Port Jackson. What is immediately apparent is that this same people had other words for their hunting sticks but used ‘boornarang’ to refer to a returning throw-stick. The Turuwal people were a sub-group (the word ‘tribe’ is inappropriate in speaking of Aboriginal peoples) of the Dharug language group which extended from the shores of Sydney (between Port Jackson and Port Hacking) in the east, to nearly Katoomba in the Blue Mountains to the west. Many of the Aboriginal words we use in English are from the Dharug language, including boomerang, waratah, wallaby, dingo, kookaburra, koala and woomera. The first fifty years of the colony were a time of intense recording of Aboriginal languages in New South Wales, yet mistakes were made, including the recording of boomerang as wommerang — a confusion of boomerang and wommera or woomera (a spear-thrower).

The Confusion Persists When Sir Thomas Mitchell was given the task of assessing the fighting capabilities of Aboriginal tribes during his many explorations, he wrote, in 1846, a detailed account of how a boomerang returns, describing it as the effect of air pressure on the two opposed surfaces (produced by the twist in the wood at the tips of the boomerang) combined with the spinning motion produced by the throw. For more than the first half century of British colonisation of Australia, the term boomerang was used, in its Aboriginal language and in official British documents at least, to describe only the returning boomerang; but, as we have seen, there were already some popular misconceptions about boomerangs circulating in the colony and back to England. John Fraser, writing for an American audience in 1893, noted, concerning the Aborigines of New South Wales: The fighting weapons of the Australians are few in number and simple in construction; they are spears, clubs, shields and the ‘bumarang’.

Of the last there are two kinds, but it is only the one of these that is used in fights … The Sydney names ‘bora’, ‘bumarang’, ‘karaban’ are already established … I have said that there are two ‘bumarangs’ … the other of these is commonly called the ‘come-back boomerang’, from the strange peculiarity of its flight, but while that name may be descriptive enough, yet it is not convenient to handle, and in one view the name is in itself contradictory, and therefore absurd, for it really means the ‘play-fighting’ weapon … The ‘come-back’ variety is not a fighting weapon. A dialect name for it is ‘bargan’ which word may be explained in our language to mean ‘bent like a sickle or crescent moon’. I will, therefore, say ‘bargan’ when I mean that variety. It is important that two different words should be used, for much confusion has been produced in the past by both varieties being called ‘bumarang’. Although Fraser was aware of the problem in confusing these two types of throw-sticks, he had, himself, succumbed to the popular use of bumarang for hunting sticks.

In Spencer and Gillen’s classic 1898 book, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, there is a list of over 400 Aboriginal words; but no use of the word boomerang and no other word for a returning throw-stick appear in the list. (The authors themselves refer to five different types of non-returning hunting sticks as boomerangs, showing that the word was still being misused by Europeans, even if the Aborigines themselves didn’t make that mistake.) This is not surprising since the Central Australian peoples did not use returning boomerangs at all, further supporting the notion that, until the end of the nineteenth century at least, Aboriginal peoples used the term boomerang only of throw-sticks which returned, and had several other names for different types of non-returning throw-sticks. Boomerangs in Speech and Sport Today Today, it is not only non-Aboriginal Australians who continue to confuse the terms. Most people overseas, if they are even aware of two different types of throw-sticks, speak of them all as boomerangs; and even most contemporary Aborigines today use the terms ‘returning’ and ‘non-returning’ boomerangs when speaking English.

Perhaps it’s so as not to be argumentative; perhaps it’s because the confusion is now so ingrained that insistence on boomerang for returning sticks only is seen as pedantic. But many boomerang enthusiasts today would agree with Fraser’s comment from over a century ago: ‘It is important that two different words be used’. The BAA and the BTA of New South Wales have consistently referred to only returning devices as boomerangs when setting rules for competitions, and have used the term hunting stick for competitions with non-returning throw-sticks. We have regarded it as important to preserve the Aboriginal origin of boomerangs in our sport, and to this end maybe an insistence on the correct terms is an education that most people need. If we are going to promote the sport of boomerangs with its history and pre-history accurately, then perhaps we need to insist: If it doesn’t come back, it’s not a boomerang.

Reference Butz, T., Boomerang Throwing – notes for instructors, 1973, unpublished booklet Fraser, J., ‘Aborigines of New South Wales’, in Pamphlets issued by the NSW Commissioners for the World’s Columbian Exposition — Chicago 1893, volume two, Sydney Government Printer Hawes, L. & M., All About Boomerangs, 1975, Paul Hamlyn, Sydney McCarthy, F.D., The Boomerang, 1969, Australian Museum Leaflet No. 48 McCarthy, F.D., ‘The Boomerang’ in The Australian Museum Magazine, volume 13, number 11, September 15, 1961, Sydney Murray, R., & White, K., Dharug & Dungaree — The History of Penrith and St.

Mary’s to 1860, 1988, Hargreen Publishing Co., North Melbourne, and the Council of the City of Penrith Smith, K.V., King Bungaree — A Sydney Aborigine Meets the Great South Pacific Explorers, 1799–1830, 1992, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst. Spencer, B., & Gillen, Fi., The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1898, 1968 edition by Dover Publications, Inc., New York Thieberger, N., & McGregor, W., (eds.), Macquarie Aboriginal Words, 1994, Macquarie Library Pty. Ltd., Macquarie University, New South Wales Aboriginal Culture - Contact Us Aboriginal Spears, Wooden Tools and Weapons The types of wooden artefacts used by Aborigines varied throughout Australia, and shown here are those for the region of coastal and northern Queensland. Group of northern men and women with painted rainforest shields, long spears, boomerangs and large battle sword-clubs. The men have multiple horizontal cicatrices (scars) over their chests and abdomens.

Some women wear necklaces. European clothing has been introduced. Approx 1910. Northern Queensland. Two men with their weapons, a large battle axe, two painted shields, and a boomerang. They wear painted body decoration, necklaces, and waist bands. The man on the right wears a European leather belt (replacing the traditional waist band) and pubic decoration. Cardwell, north Queensland. Details of six spears from north Queensland. (a) Mjoberg was told this barb was made from a human shin bone, and it appears similar to those made from a stingray barb. (b) Spear tip made from part of a fish or silurid. (c) Acacia wood spear. (d) Spear with barbs made from echidna quills. (e) Black palm spear. (f) Four pronged spear used to catch fish. Four pronged wooden spear used to catch eels. Tully River. North Queensland. From left to right: Fish club from Cedar Creek, Spearthrower with shell handle, Spearthrower with decorated shaft, Music stick. Australia Timeline | TIME For Kids People from Southeast Asia settle in Australia. Their descendants are the Aboriginal people.

SCIENCE & SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY—GETTY IMAGES 8000 B.C. Aborigines invent the boomerang. This wooden weapon, which is used for hunting, returns to its thrower. 1770 A.D. Britain claims Australia. It settles the first of six colonies in 1788. HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES 1850s Gold is found in southern Australia. Entire settlements are deserted as folks rush to the gold mines. 1901 The six colonies join to form the Commonwealth of Australia. It has a democratic government. Britain's royalty has only a ceremonial role. 1927 Canberra officially replaces Melbourne as the nation's capital. 1962 Aborigines are given the right to vote. Five years later, they're recognized as citizens. 1976 The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is passed. It is a legal turning point for Aborigines, giving them the right to make claims on their ancestral land in the Northern Territory. Nine years later, Uluru is returned to Aborigines. GETTY IMAGES Sydney hosts the Summer Olympic Games.

2008 aboriginal words - Getting English Words aboriginal words (word entries based on Australian native terms) beauty! A metal vessel for making tea. bludger A shirker or a freeloader. boomerang A flat, curved throwing weapon, some types of which return to the thrower. budgerigar A small, brightly colored parakeet. bushranger An outlaw or a robber. capsicum An everyday word for "bell pepper". chook cocky An informal term for "small farmer". Farmers were called cockies in the early days of European settlement because, like the birds of the same name, they made their homes on the edges of permanent waterholes. corrobore A ceremonial and religious gathering with music and dance. dingo

Question: What is the name of the aborigine weapon that returns to the thrower
Answer: A boomerang